Sony axes Xperia PLAY Android 4.0 upgrade

Sony has cancelled plans to upgrade the Xperia PLAY gaming smartphone to Ice Cream Sandwich, justifying its decision with negative feedback from carriers, developers and owners of the test Android 4.0 build. "After extensive in house testing with our developer teams and working with our partners," Sony said in a statement today, "we have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smartphone on Ice Cream Sandwich."

Sony had previously said that it planned to push out the PLAY update by the end of May or the beginning of June. That was followed by an ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia Play devices, pushed out as a test platform prior to the official upgrade, and which Sony claims resulted in some serious issues among owners.

Sony has detailed exactly what was giving it headaches with ICS on the PLAY, but there are indications that it's gaming stability that has been the problem. "The ICS upgrade would have compromised stability," the company said, "where we look to ensure a quality gaming experience with games optimized and developed for Xperia PLAY."

As for other devices, the Xperia arc, Xperia neo, Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia pro, Xperia active and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman will start to to see Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 upgrades from next week. Xperia arc S, Xperia ray and Xperia neo V users will also get a 4.0.4 update.

Sony statement:

"In regards to Xperia PLAY, after extensive in house testing with our developer teams and working with our partners, we have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smartphone on Ice Cream Sandwich – therefore, we will not make the Android 4.0 upgrade available for Xperia PLAY.

This decision was also verified when we received similar feedback from the developer community; both experienced developers and advanced users, along with game content providers following our ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia PLAY smartphones.

Our priority has and always will be, to provide the best possible user experience on Xperia smartphones. In this instance the ICS upgrade would have compromised stability, where we look to ensure a quality gaming experience with games optimized and developed for Xperia PLAY"